The Lebanon express. (Lebanon, Linn County, Or.) 1887-1898, 1887-08-26

III the teW francs palu tof your lace.
Your lives shall henceforth be 3 part
Of mine. and the red threads in your
lace will signify to me the life-blood
of two OF my little sisters. / am
sure shall find you again come
where. sometimel 1t was not chance
that led me to your little stall to-
day. Your paths in life crossed mine,
to teach me broader, tenderer hu-
manity. / was never so thankful for
my very imperfect understanding and
use of the French and German Lam
guages (over which I have spent
months and years OF late night and
early morning study. did not know
why, only that was irresistibly drawn
to read and know them). as Ihaye been
for their help TO get at the heart of
these poor peoples lives-their homes;
to find out how they lived. what sun
shine came into them.
'And how do you live in winterY' /
asked of the guide who was leading
my horse through one of these passes
the other day.
90 sehr geniuthifch,' he replied.
which means both kindly and cheerily,
and he explained to me that the people
in these valleys were very ..frenndEich
mil eifiaaier. /" they visited each other a
good deal; in short were "sehy npnnter''
gay in the long winters.
"And what do these people live ong''
| asked.
o. they had potatoes. he said. and the
vegetables that they raised in summer,
and they had their goats, and they had
bread-a few had cow. They could
get wood from the mountai they
made their houses warm, and they lived
gaily.
And what do you do all the long
winter when you can not work in the
fields and when the sun scarcely shines
ON you for months?''
The women, he said. spun the fax
that / saw them spreading and turning
in the fields; they made the lace that
saw them selling; they embroidered the
handkerchiefs saw in the shops. The
men got the wood and they carved the
articles that saw in shops in all Swiss
towns. aud that saw in all these places
along the road. They were very indus
trious. and skilful, and ingenious. The
latter traits / could well believe they
possessed when / saw them with a
sharp-pointed knife alone turn a small
block of wood into deer or ehamois
that really seemed alive and leaping
from crag to crag of the mountain
heights.
DO you ever have meat to eatP"
asked.
''Gar klein fefsch. was his reply.
Ever have coffee or tea TO drink?''
Nothing of that kind" he said. and
yet like Wordsworth little maid who
ate her supper on her sisters grave
che had his way and insisted that
they lived comfortably. though ''sehr
ornie' very poor-and were gay dur
ing the long winters.
do the slides of snow-avalanches-
never come down here?" / asked.
Yes, sometimes they did," he said.
and he pointed out place where one
fell three years ago. burying a man and
four children. the mother was out and
escaped.
And have the people never warn
ing of their FALL" / further inquired.
$50 that they could escape to a safer
placer
They were more likely to fall In
the spring." he said. but they never
knew when or just where they would
fall. And so they lived on. That they
could have their joys, gather some sun
shine into their lives, live ''gemuttiich''
and 'munter," as he said they did in
the long, sunless winters, / was glad
and thanked God. l was glad-more
than glad-thankfu with the deepest
righteousness of my heart that by these
simple and sincere revelations of their
lives | could bring them nearer my own
life, aud without loving nearer neigh
bors less, love my most distant ones the
more for these glimpses, if they some
times make INV eyes hot and my head
ache with weeping over their naru
lives.
Shall / tell you how the Swiss OF
these valleys make land and get their
farmsP Passing along. see on some
high. steep mountain slopes which have
n sunny exposure row after row of what
resembles the milestones along our rail-
ways. only these stones are not more
than three or four yards apart. Neither
are they all stones, but slabs of wood
fastened in the crevices of the rock or
propped up in some way. As came
nearer to some of them lowest on the
mountain side, noticed that they were
Joined one to another by plated or in
terwoven withes and supple branches
of trees, making u fence of a couple of
feet in length. These rows extended
up the steep rocky sides of the noun
tains to dizzy heights that one can
hardly look up to. nor could / imagine
how people had climbed up these steep
bare rocks to fasten the posts, and then
to weave and twist the withes that
united them. On inquiring what these
fences were for, learned that they
we're made with great difficulty and
danger to make lodgment for the par
ticles of rock that scale off and are
washed down the sides of the mount
aims by the heavy rains. In time soil
is formed upon the top of these narrow,
sloping beds thus made, on which po-
tatoes and some coarse grains are
grown. But it must be trade, dread
full as that of gathering samphire, to
make these little farms, and then to till
them and gather the crops. One can
not but ask what will not man give